William Scripture was a lawyer in the first half of the 20th Century, and a member of a prominent Rome family.

He was an outstanding athlete in his youth, and also loved the outdoors. So much so, according to some, he spent a lot more time fishing and hunting then he ever did in his law office or in court.

That’s okay. That’s what earned him a little place in fly fishing history.

Scripture is credited in the literature with important developments in bucktails, and even has been called the inventor of the classic lure, although that has about as much legitimacy as the claim that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown.

Be that as it may:

Some people use the word streamer for any long fly that is used to imitate baitfish and other critters. Others say streamers refer to long flies constructed of feathers, while bucktails are long flies made with hair. No matter. Streamers and bucktails will catch you big fish under many conditions, and some would say any conditions.

Lee was a well-known outdoorsman I got to know in the last years of his life. To say he was a character would understate the fact by a country mile, but he also was an old-timer with a barrel-full of wisdom. He was right about the streamers, even if I was reluctant to use them much for many years. Too much work … until I either read about or worked out a lazy man’s ways of fishing them that involves less retrieving and more manipulation of the rod. Now, early or late in the year, or when the water is high, the streamers and bucktails and Wooly Buggers come out, and they often work very well.

Scripture, born in 1884, was designing and fishing bucktails at least by 1907, and possibly before.

Years ago I had a conversation with Dick Wilson of Rome, who spent a lot of time fishing and hunting with Scripture in the days after World War I. A crusty old Navy man, Wilson told of how Scripture would shoot trap one-handed with his off hand because he found it too easy otherwise, He also tied flies in his hands, without a vise. He usually smoked while tying, often resting lit cigarettes on the edge of his dining room table. Wilson said the table eventually was charred all the way around the rim.

Scripture and Wilson and their friends used to stock the Mohawk River with big trout – I do believe they raised them themselves – and made their own rods from bamboo sticks they bought at the Pepper Company in Rome. They fished a lot of places besides the Mohawk, and had a favorite spot on the West Branch of Fish Creek that Wilson was surprised to find I knew about.

Page 2 of 2 - “We never told anyone about that place,” he grumbled – and he really did grumble - but the truth is I never fished it.

Scripture and Wilson often fished with bucktails. In his classic book, “Streamers,” Joseph Bates, the first great authority on streamer fishing, credited Scripture with being among the first anglers to design bucktails. The flies were made to catch big trout and bass in the Mohawk and similar waters, and apparently did a good job of it. Other angling writers have referred to Scripture as the originator of the bucktail or at least a developer and popularizer of the lure.

Of course, saying someone was the first to tie this or that fly or carve this or that lure is chancy, and I don’t believe Scripture himself ever made such a claim. Bucktail-like lures were known in ancient days, and also were used by American Indians and other aboriginal peoples around the globe. Fly fishing historian Paul Schullery notes that his British counterpart, Conrad Voss Bark, wrote in “A History of Fly Fishing” that Mediterranean fishers were using such lures at the time of Homer, around 850 B.C. American and British writers were describing flies that sound very much like Scripture’s designs in the 1840s and 1850s.

However, I think we can say with confidence that Scripture, more than 100 years ago, refined the bucktail and, because he was well known and highly respected, helped popularize it. If you fish one of his designs today, you can’t go too wrong.

It is a pretty simple fly, and simple is good. Bates, writing in 1950, describes the Scripture No. 1 bucktail as having a silver body with a short red wool tail and a white bucktail wing. The No. 2 has a gold body with a short red wool tail and a dark brown bucktail wing. I also have some other information that says No. 1 is flat gold tinsel with a dark brown bucktail wing, No. 2 is silver tinsel with a white bucktail wing, and No. 3 is silver tinsel with a dark brown wing, all with a red wool tag. Someone obviously got things mixed up, but what difference does it make? These would be tied on 3X long or longer streamer hooks.

It might be nice to have at least a few of Scripture’s bucktails and maybe catch a few trout or bass on them, just as a nod to a local guy who had a notable role in fly fishing history.